UPDATE: Kickstarter Donations To Fund Deaf West SPRING AWAKENING's Tony Performance Pass $40K

As reported yesterday by BroadwayWorld, Los Angeles' Deaf West Theatre has begun a Kickstarter campaign to raise $200,000 in donations in order to fund a performance from their Broadway revival of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's SPRING AWAKENING on the 2016 Tony Awards telecast. Late this morning, the campaign reached the $40,000 mark.

Nominated musicals and musical revivals traditionally get a spot to promote their shows with a song or two at each year's ceremony, but it's not free. Producers must pay for the expense of promoting their productions to a nationwide television audience.

Deaf West Theatre's now-closed limited run Broadway revival, which featured deaf actors paired with hearing actors, was nominated as one of this season's best. As explained in the video, $200,000 is needed to pay the costs of flying the cast back to New York, getting the costumes and instruments and props out of storage, paying for rehearsal space and paying for the television time.

Click here for more information and to donate.

Deaf West Theatre, Inc. (DWT) was founded in 1991 to directly improve and enrich the cultural lives of over 1.2 million deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who live in the Los Angeles area. To date, DWT has produced over 40 plays and 4 musicals, won more than 80 theater awards, performed on Broadway, and has been nominated for one Tony Award. For its unique vision and artistic excellence throughout its eighteen-year history, DWT is recognized as the premier sign language theater in the United States. DWT has consistently strived for the highest artistic quality by bringing together some of the most exciting theater professionals from the hearing world to work with deaf and hard of hearing actors of the highest caliber in ambitious American Sign Language adaptations that range from contemporary masterpieces and original works to the classics. DWT has helped launch and nurture the careers of many of today's most recognizable deaf actors. DWT's productions and internationally acclaimed educational programs have contributed significantly to the vibrancy of deaf culture and American theater. Visit deafwest.org.